Triumvirate of Netanyahu, Ya'alon, and Ganz Oversees Israel's Gaza Campaign Trying to Repair Problem Dating Back to 1993 Oslo Deal

Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon just told Israel Radio that Hamas will rue the day it started the latest round of fighting with the Jewish state.

We can only hope so.

That depends on Israel keeping up the pressure on Hamas without being drawn into a premature land operations.

Ya'alon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and IDF Chief of Staff Binyamin "Benny" Gantz are the triumvirate who are conducting Israel's Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza.

By law, Netanyahu must also consult with a six-member security cabinet which he expanded to eight participants.

The security panel has met at least once daily since the conflict began on July 8^th. The members are Netanyahu, Ya'alon, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, and Communications Minister Gilad Erdan.

The security cabinet must authorize military operations.

Netanyahu has also occasionally invited other cabinet members including Yuval Steinitz, a former strategic affairs minister and Yaakov Perry, a former Shin Bet chief to participate in the deliberations.

Military and intelligence officials brief the security cabinet, usually Gen. Aviv Kochavi, chief of the military intelligence, Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen, and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo.

Netanyahu has also taken pains to brief the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and the heads of the main opposition factions, including the official opposition leader, Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog.

At the July 13 meeting of the full cabinet, Netanyahu defined the goal of Operation Protective Edge as "the restoration of quiet for a long period while inflicting a significant blow on Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip."

The Gaza Strip was turned over to the Palestinian Authority as part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1993. Arafat arrived in Gaza in 1994. While Israel withdrew from most of the Strip in 1994, it retained security control and a string of civilian settlements until 2005 when premier Ariel Sharon unilaterally pulled out of the territory.

Rockets began slamming into Gaza's Jewish settlements from PLO-controlled Gaza long before the disengagement. 

In other words, even under the PLO -- the area was not demilitarized.

In August 2007, Hamas ousted Arafat's successor Mahmoud Abbas from the Strip. According to its http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp charter, the Islamic Resistance Movement is committed to the destruction of Israel.

Muslim-on-Muslim -- Arab on Arab -- bloodletting: Sunni Jihadis in Iraq Carry Out Biggest Atrocity in Recent Memory Against Shiites

In what may be the worse expression of Muslim-on-Muslim -- Arab on Arab -- bloodletting that has wracked the Middle East in recent years, Sunni extremists in Iraq say they have massacred 1,700 unarmed Shiite soldiers, The New York Times reported.  

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) carried out the slaughter in Tikrit— Saddam Hussein's former base— posting photographs on its Twitter feed and warning that more killing was to come.

Saddam was Sunni ruling over a majority Shiite population.

The mass murder could unleash a wave of Shiite reprisals against Sunni civilians elsewhere in Iraq.

Twitter is now blocked in Iraq and people are largely unaware of what happened in Tikrit.

ISIS has taunted the U.S. to come to the aid of the Shiites "Soon we will face you, and we are waiting for this day," the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said in a statement aimed at Washington.

The Sunni jihadis captioned photos of the atrocities they committed to ridicule Shiites: "The filthy Shiites are killed in the hundreds," read one. "Look at them walking to death on their own feet," read another. A third said: "The liquidation of the Shiites who ran away from their military bases." Yet another warned: "This is the destiny of Maliki's Shiites."

Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is the Iraqi prime minister.

None of the pictures posted showed more than 60 victims in a frame and the 1,700 figure is unconfirmed.

The BBC reported that some photographs showed large numbers of Shiite men being transported "away" in trucks.

Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had previously called his followers to arms to block ISIS but instructed them to "exert the highest possible level of self-restraint" – presumably a message not to engage in the wholesale slaughter of Sunni non-combatants, according to the Times. 

The Shiite-led Iraqi security establishment has played down reports of the atrocity or denied it altogether, the Times reported. But one senior government official said, "I don't doubt they are real, but 1,700 is a big number. We are trying to control the reaction."

ISIS aims to create a Sunni caliphate across the entire Middle East in part by inflaming sectarian tensions. The group was inspired by al-Qaida but Baghdadi no longer accepts the authority of al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, The Daily Telegraph reported. 

Who stands in the way of ISIS? The Islamist Persian regime in Iran which espouses its own brand of Shiite extremist Island and the Arab Shiites in Iraq.

It would be a mistake to see the concurrence of interests between Tehran and Washington to stop ISIS as a channel to find common ground. 

Naturally, we can expect President Barack Obama to get this wrong.

But the US remains the Great Satan to Iran even if the ISIS is the near term threat to their hegemonic regional designs.

This will not end well. Netanyahu: Hamas has Kidnapped Three Teens in the Gush Etzion Area

Israel Mobilizing Reserves as Fears Grow for Missing Teens

After an extraordinary government cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it was ordering a partial call-up of reserves. 

The troops will augment units that have been shifted from their regular duties to "Operation Return Our Sons," the intensive search for three Israeli high school students kidnapped by Palestinian Arab terrorists late Thursday night, Israel Radio reported.

One of the missing boys is believed to have dual Israeli and American citizenship.

Israeli authorities have placed the onus for the kidnapping on Hamas.

"Those who carried out the abduction of our boys were members of Hamas," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"This will have severe consequences," he added.

The boys, Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were taken captive while hitchhiking in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank just south of Jerusalem, The Times of Israel reported.

Given erratic public transportation connecting Jewish communities in the West Bank hitchhiking is a way of life for many young people.

Hamas recently joined a Palestinian Authority unity government headed by Mahmoud Abbas. While Netanyahu did not mention the Obama administration by name, he did denounce "elements" in the "international community" that continued to back Abbas despite his coalition with Hamas.

Israeli security officials say that the Palestinian Authority is now cooperating in the search for the missing youths, according to Israel Radio.

No one is suggesting that Abbas wanted this to happen. The kidnapping complicates his position. But his so-called unity government has boosted Hamas and covers the expenses for Hamas employees in the West Bank. It also helps the legitimacy of the group which openly calls for Israel's destruction --whereas more moderate Arab groups are prepared to see Israel destroyed in step-by-step phases.

No Palestinian Arab group from the most moderate to the most extreme recognizes the right of the Jewish people to a national homeland anywhere in the Middle East -- within any boundaries. 

By early Sunday morning, Israeli security forces in the West Bank had arrested 80 Palestinians among them senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

Most of these are "political" as opposed to "military" operatives.

Claims by several jihadi groups that they—and not Hamas— carried out the kidnappings have apparently been discounted by Israeli authorities.

Israel is sealing off the West Bank from Jordan and from Gaza to ensure the boys are not moved out of the country,  the Times reported.

By Sunday afternoon, the search had narrowed to a number of "villages" south of Hebron.

Security in Judea and Samaria -- or the West Bank -- has steadily deteriorated. 

Under U.S. and European Union pressure all internal checkpoints in the territory have long been abandoned to ease Palestinian civilian life and to strengthen the political standing of Abbas.

Israeli analysts say that a series of prisoner releases has contributed to insecurity and strengthened radical Palestinian groups.

In October 2011, Israel released 1,027 convicted prisoners in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit. More recently, over 100 convicts were set free to entice Abbas to the negotiating table.

Both releases were carried out by the Netanyahu government.

A hunger strike by some of the 200 Hamas and PFLP prisoners being held under administrative detention has been the focus of recent West Bank demonstrations.  

These are dangerous men who have not been formerly tried but whose imprisonment has been reviewed by several levels of the Israeli justice apparatus. 

The post-Zionist Haaretz newspaper has championed their release.

Israel Channel 2's Arab affairs reporter Ehud Ya'ari said that Hamas operations in the West Bank are now being coordinated from Istanbul, Turkey, by one of the prisoners released in the Shalit deal.

News of the kidnappings was welcomed by many Palestinians with some women handing out sweet pastries to celebrate.

Meanwhile, in protest to the kidnappings, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have told Palestinian employees not to report for work until further notice.

Special prayers were offered at synagogues throughout Israel on Saturday and at many Orthodox schools on Sunday.

There is mounting concern that the boys may already have been murdered.

Security sources tell journalists they expect to solve the case in a matter of days but that does not necessarily mean there will be good news at the endgame.

Incidentally, Netanyahu has cancelled most of his scheduled Sunday appointments except a memorial for those killed by Haganah forces on orders of David Ben-Gurion in their attack on the Irgun boat Altelana (see for details on that tragedy http://elliotjager.blogspot.com.tr/2011/06/altalena-irgun-and-ben-gurion.html)

##

Memorial Day May 5 - Israel's 66th Independence Day May 7

The State of Israel began a somber Memorial Day at sundown Sunday night with a one-minute nationwide siren at 8 PM that ushered in a nationally-televised memorial service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. 

President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Ganz were the featured speakers.

The audience was comprised mostly of the loved ones of the fallen.

The wall is a remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by Roman legionnaires in 70 A.D.

During the following 24 hour period most restaurants and places of entertainment are closed. Israeli television and radio stations will broadcast mostly solemn music and programming, including documentaries about the pre-state underground fighters, Israel Defense Forces soldiers, and intelligence operatives who died for their country. Civilians who lost their lives at the hands of terrorists are also remembered.

On Monday at 11 AM a second siren will blast for two minutes commencing a memorial ceremony at the main military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Over a million and a half Israelis are expected to pay their respects at military cemeteries across the country.

Israeli newspapers devoted the front pages of their Sunday editions to Memorial Day coverage.

Since the birth of the founder of modern political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, in 1860, some 23,169 fighters have fallen in creating and defending the Jewish state.

The country makes an abrupt transition from mourning to celebration at sundown on Monday with 24 hours of festivities marking 66 years of independence. 

The highlights include the awarding of the annual Israel prizes and a youth bible contest.

On the eve of Independence Day, Israel's bureau of statistics announced that the country now has 8.2 million residents of whom 75 percent, or 6.1 million, are Jewish and 21 percent, or 1.7 million are Arabs. 

This figure does not include the Palestinian Arab population in the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, whose numbers are in dispute. Palestinian officials absurdly claim 2.72 http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Palestinian-population-in-W-Bank-Gaza-about-45-million-319569 million Arabs live in the disputed territory while some Israelis put the number as low http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.532703 as 1 million.

Former Israel PM Ehud Olmert Convicted of Bribery Having Rope-a-Doped Other Scandals For Years

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was convicted of bribery committed while he was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003, Israel Radio reported.

Those were the years of the second intifada -- which took 1,000 Israeli lives.

The case involved construction of a grandiose housing development known as Holyland. It is an eyesore of a complex sitting above Begin Highway in the southern section of the city.

In 2010, businessman Shmuel Dachner, turned state's witness and implicated Olmert in the scandal. Dachner died in 2013 after a long illness.

Olmert denigrated Dachner -- but to no avail. 

In his ruling, Tel Aviv District Court Judge David Rosen -- there are no jury trials in Israel -- said Olmert lied to the court. 

Olmert also paid the legal expenses of his trusty former office manager who had – until last week – refused to testify against him.  

The judge said the aide, Shula Zaken, would nevertheless have to pay the price of her refusal to testify. She would not get points for changing her mind when it was too late.

Among those convicted in the scandal was Uri Lupolianski, who succeeded Olmert as Jerusalem mayor.

This actually saddens me. Lupolianski was the city's first ultra-Orthodox mayor. His family founded Yad Sarah which is a social service network that, among other things, provides free medical equipment to those in need.

Olmert was separately convicted in 2012 of breach of trust in another case involving financial irregularities while he was a cabinet minister. He was fined and handed a suspended sentence.

But he dodged conviction on several other cases, in large measure I'm assuming, because Shula Zaken kept "sthum."

Olmert became premier after Ariel Sharon was felled by a stroke. Elected in his own right he served from 2006 to 2009 including during the mismanaged Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah, and Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza.

It was under Olmert that Gilad Shalit was taken prisoner in 2006. Neither Olmert nor his defense minister Ehud Barak were able to locate Shalit who was being held within driving distance of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

Instead they both made bombastic threats against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Olmert has been making speeches since leaving office. He's criticized Netanyahu for not seducing Mahmud Abbas into making peace with Israel -- even though he couldn't either.

Rather than siding with Israel while he was abroad and with the Israeli government against foreign governments -- ex-PM Olmert has waged a campaign against Netanyahu from the left.

Given Olmert's reputation for integrity, former chief of staff Dan Halutz's reputation for single-minded focus on his work, and ex-Mossad director Meir Dagan reputation for keeping his mouth shut, I was not surprised that the three of them recently went into business together. 

A sentencing hearing is set for April 28 in the Holyland case.

Olmert faces a possible prison term. He would be the first ex-prime minister to be sent to prison in Israel's history. Former president Moshe Katsav is currently serving a sentence for rape.

HONORING MENACHEM BEGIN'S FRIENDSHIP WITH CHRISTIAN EVANGELICALS

I was delighted to attend a March 26 evening at the Begin Center here in Jerusalem dedicated to Prime Minister Menachem Begin's friendship with Evangelical Christians.

It was an evening hosted by the savvy and gracious David Parsons, media director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

The Begin Center is marking the 100^th Anniversary since Begin's birth with a series of events.

This one dedicated to Begin and Christian Zionists.

The guest speaker was Dr. Daniel Gordis of the Shalem College and author of Menachem Begin: The Struggle for Israel's Soul.

I have not had the chance to read it yet, but is definitely on my list.

According to Parsons: "Of all the successive prime ministers of Israel following the nation's re-birth in 1948, Begin stands out as the first premier to publicly welcome Christian Zionist support and to seek to harness it in defense of the Jewish state. 

"Others before him may have had connections to individual Christian figures, but the story of the Israel-Evangelical partnership as we know it today starts with Begin."

Parsons notes that David Ben-Gurion had encounters with Christian Zionists including Southern Baptist leader Dr. W. A. Criswell.  

And Rev. Pat Robertson sought to reach out to Yitzhak Rabin.

"But Menachem Begin holds the unique distinction of being the first Israeli prime minister to warmly embrace Christian Zionist support in an open manner," says Parsons.

What made Begin different?   

Gordis -- who is an engaging speaker --  made the point that it took Begin, a genuine liberal -- not in the "left" v "right" sense -- but in the classical sense of dedication to individual liberty and tolerance, and Begin the Biblical Jew -- in the sense of someone who lived the Bible to value Christian support.

David Ben Gurion had a solid grasp of Scripture but Begin lived it, said Gordis.

Begin understood that Christians truly know their bible. They know that those who bless Israel will be blessed, said Gordis.

Begin knew that Christian believers appreciated that the Jews dwell alone, and that as a leader of Israel he would sometimes be isolated.

Like Christian believers, Begin understood Jewish destiny in the long biblical sense.

When during the Camp David talks with Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter told him this is the "last opportunity" for peace, Begin thought that absurd, said Gordis.

For an ancient people that has thousands of years of history and thousands of years of destiny ahead the idea that Carter could talk of "last chances" was ridiculous.

Begin was not "Orthodox" in the common sense of the term, but he was the most deeply Jewish PM, said Gordis.

It was Begin who recited Psalms as IAF bombers were dispatched to take out Saddam Hussein's Iraqi nuclear plant.  

Parsons adds that Begin surrounded himself with advisers like Harry Hurwitz who also valued Christian support.

It was Hurwitz who encouraged Begin to support the founding of a Christian Embassy in Jerusalem in 1980, according to Parsons.

Begin sought, welcomed and received the support of Christian leaders such as Rev. Jerry Falwell 

and Ed McAteer.

Begin addressed Christian audiences with warmth and friendship, said Parsons.

I am grateful to the Christian Embassy for its important work -- may they go from strength to strength.

Was the Malaysian Pilot a 'Political Fanatic' as The Sunday Daily Mail Claims? And, if so, is that Fact Pertinent?

The pilot of missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 was a "strident" supporter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, the Daily Mail on Sunday reported.

Hours before the plane took off, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah reportedly attended a session of Ibrahim's long-running court proceedings. His colleagues said the captain was preoccupied with Ibrahim's trial.

The British tabloid said its own investigation of the pilot showed him to be a "political fanatic" and that he kept a makeshift flight simulator in his private home.

If the name Ibrahim is slightly familiar it is because he is a former deputy premier of Malaysia. 

He broke with the ruling Barisan Nasional Party and founded an anti-corruption reformist Islamic movement. 

He has been involved in lengthy proceedings following his imprisonment for alleged corruption and homosexual activity-- such activity is formally illegal.

Ibrahim is currently out on bail and the leader of the Malaysian parliamentary opposition. He is planning to run for re-election in his constituency on March 23.

Though viewed as a moderate— Ibrahim is prominently supported in the U.S. by Al Gore— he has spoken darkly of a conspiracy between the Malaysian government, the United States and Israel. He said that the Jews were manipulating Malaysian foreign policy. 

This Ibrahim angle may explain why the Malaysian authorities have been so cagey about releasing information.

Even if it proves a dead end -- it might have proved explosive so they may have wanted to be cautious. 

At its outset, Ibrahim's movement received Saudi funding, according to the Israel-based Gloria Center. His International Institute of Islamic Thought is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Discover The Networks.

Investigator are examining the possibility that the pilot's political and religious leanings are somehow related to the plane's disappearance. 

How running a plane into the ocean helps Ibrahim's cause is not easily apparent. 

But then, why did First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti of EgyptAir Flight 990 possibly drive his Boeing 767-300ER into Long Island Sound in October 1999?

But to Zaharie. He had been with the airline since 1981 and a captain for about 10 years. 

The background of co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid is also being investigated in light of photographs showing that he unlawfully allowed female passengers into the cockpit on a previous flight.

Additionally, reportsalso emerged of the presence of an aviation engineer among the passengers, according to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph 

reported -- and here I think this is a stretch -- that Saajid Muhammad Badat, a British-born al-Qaida informant, told British authorities that he was aware of a long-standing plot by a group of Malaysians— one of whom reportedly was a pilot— to  hijack and airliner. 

Badat said he once supplied the cell with a shoe bomb and that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, now being held in Guantánamo, was the plot's original organizer.

State Department Goes Wobbly on 'Jewish State'

A Palestinian Arab newspaper has reportedly quoted State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying the United States does not necessarily expect Palestinian Arabs to accept that Israel has a right to exist in the Middle East as the state of the Jewish people.

Psaki was interviewed by the Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper on Saturday.

According to multiple Israeli press reports, Psaki said, "The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that the Palestinian refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the return of the Jewish people to Israel is at the core of the conflict. The rejectionism signals that that even if the more moderate Palestinian faction signed a peace accord with Israel they would see it as only a temporary expediency – while adhering to the position that Jews have no right to a nation state in the Middle East.   

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, is scheduled to arrive in Washington on March 17 for meetings with President Barack Obama and other administration officials.

His opposition to accepting the right of a Jewish state in the Middle East is the same as that of the Palestinian Hamas leadership which governs in Gaza.

Psaki also reportedly said that a "framework agreement" outlining the future direction of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has not yet been finalized.

The current round of talks began in July 2013 under heavy Obama administration pressure on both sides. The administration pressured Israel to release hundreds of terrorists -- a factor that explains the uptick in security dangers including on Road 443.

The release of the Gilad Schalit prisoners has already caused major damage to security and deterrence.

At any rate, neither side wanted these talks. If nothing else they agreed that talking would be pointless. The Palestinian Arab "minimum" was well beyond anything Israel could accept. 

Indeed, forced talks that collapse in failure were likely to de-stabilize the Arab street and lead to dashed hopes and increased violence.

But the administration and the Europeans opted for the illusion of momentum.

The administration said that it hoped to wrap up a deal by April 2014. 

That now appears, shall we say, unlikely. 

As a fallback, the State Department wanted to have the two sides initial a "framework agreement" that, based on agreed parameters, would carry the talks past April.

But the two sides can't even agree on that -- certainly not for signature.

Now, according to an Israel Radio on Friday, the U.S. is trying to come up with wording for a "framework agreement" that is satisfactory to the sides though neither Arabs nor Israelis would have to formally endorse it.

By putting the talks between Israel and the PLO on the front burner rather than dealing with Iran, and by simply ignoring that with Hamas in control of Gaza, a deal with the PLO is anyway pointless -- the US has wasted its diplomatic capital.

On the Palestinian conflict with Israel, this administration has managed to get it all wrong.

Sally Bercovic's Moving Talk on Life, Death and Meaning

This is absolutely worth watching:

http://www.jhub.org.uk/jdov/portfolio/six-feet-under/


Copy & paste link:

http://www.jhub.org.uk/jdov/portfolio/six-feet-under/

Watching America From 6,000 Miles Away: Two Tea Party Conservatives Mark the Movement's Fifth Anniversary

Marking the fifth anniversary of the tea party movement, conservative U.S. Fox TV personality Sean Hannity interviewed conservative syndicated firebrand columnist Ann Coulter Wednesday on his Fox News Channel program.

Hannity led off by saying that he sees the tea party as "stronger than ever."

Coulter made a distinction between "fantastic" grass roots tea party supporters who helped bring about a Republican-controlled House in 2010, and "conmen and scamsters" who have arisen to trick "good Americans" into sending them money.

She maintained that "rich groups" going after "establishment Republicans" had their own agenda.

"The key word is 'Republicans,'" she said.  

The only way to repeal Obamacare is to elect a Republican majority, she said. Coulter recommended Thomas Sowell's Wednesday column to the Hannity audience in which he writes: "The Republican establishment's criticisms of [Texas] Senator [Ted] Cruz are criticisms of his rule-or-ruin strategy, which can destroy whatever chance Republicans have of taking back the Senate in 2014 and taking back the White House in 2016." 

Hannity replied, "I disagree – because I read the column."

He said the establishment disappointed him and lacked a winning vision.

Coulter insisted success— in repealing Obamacare as well as other issues— depended on a big GOP win. None of Obama's policies will "fall on their own" unless they are rescinded by a Republican-controlled congress.

Hannity held firm that the establishment had not fought sufficiently hard to overcome the president's policies.

"Give them a majority," Coulter countered. "Give them a majority!"

Hannity expressed skepticism. If the Republicans gain control of the congress "then what are they going to tell us? 'Give us the presidency. Then we can really do something.'"

She answered that if it were not for "shysters and con men" Republicans would have already been in control of the Senate.

Hannity shot back that the establishment is the problem and that their opponents are pressing for sticking to principles.

In wrapping up, Coulter asserted that the anti-establishment forces were not genuinely opposed to immigration amnesty.

She urged the audience not to donate to the Senate Conservatives Fund.

British Museum Expert: 'Real' Noah's Ark Would Have Been Round

A 3,700-year-old cuneiform text has the British Museum's top specialist on ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions convinced that Noah's Ark was most likely huge, round, made of wickerwork rope, and watertight material, http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/jan/24/babylonian-tablet-noah-ark-constructed-british-museum the Guardian reported.

The http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/01/24/was-the-ark-round-a-babylonian-description-discovered/ expert, Irving Finkel, who decoded the weather-beaten clay tablet, with its 60 lines of tidy text, is one of the few scholars alive today who knows how to decipher script recorded on cuneiform or clay tablets.

Finkel is convinced this particular clay tablet is "one of the most important human documents ever discovered," the Guardian reported.

As for the craft described in the Book of Genesis, "I am 107 percent convinced the ark never existed," he said.

All civilizations have the myths. What is key, it seems to me, is what they say about the values of the particular civilization.

Finkel believes the idea that inspired the Biblical flood story originated in Mesopotamia. 

The authors of the Hebrew Bible were moved by hearing flood stories during their exile in Babylonia after the destruction of Jerusalem's First Temple in 586 BC.

Mesopotamia corresponds to today's Iraq, and smaller parts of Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Kuwait. Babylon was an ancient city of Mesopotamia.

"The flood story in Genesis basically overlaps with the Babylonian story. The two are interdependent, cut from the same cloth. The Judean intelligentsia knew Babylon's folk tales, but gave them a Jewish twist. The same holds for the similarity between the baby-in-the-bulrushes story of Moses and the story of the Assyrian king Sargon, whose mother also placed him in a reed basket," Finkel http://elliotjager.blogspot.co.il/2010/09/meeting-irving-finkel.html told me several years ago when I interviewed him here in Jerusalem.

The tablet Finkel analyzed is the only one found so far that offers precise dimensions and directions on how to construct the ark— which it says should be circular. The commands call for an ark that would be almost as big as a British soccer field, the Guardian reports.

Finkel does not say the craft actually existed but believes similar though smaller vessels did ply ancient waters, according to the Guardian. 

The tablet, which will be put on display at the British Museum, was first shown to Finkel in 2008 by Douglas Simmons, whose father, Leonard, brought it home to England after service in the Middle East with the Royal Air Force.

The clay tablet also portrays islands beyond the known world. The text says, that is where  the remains of the ark can be found.

Finkel details his flood theory in a book due out on Jan. 30, "The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood."